Monday, February 4, 2013

Papercut Chinese New Year

I haven't posted a lot of crafts recently - many reasons, but I've been able to let out some of my creative energy in my work. One of the great bonuses of my current position!

This is the display I've put together for Chinese New Year - my supervisor gave me a small picture which she liked, but the resolution was far too low to use it directly - so I combined it with my love for paper crafting and this was the result.

The snake was far and away the hardest and most time consuming of the project - mostly cut with an exacto knife with a hammer-driven hole punch for some of the finer detail. I made it over several days - knifework can be tough on the hands, especially where a lot of detail is involved. I chose this colour palette as it's a water snake year. You might see a tiny issue there, but I'm not going to tell you - anyone's capable of a derp from time to time. It sticks out like a sore thumb to me but apparently some don't notice until it's pointed out.

The lanterns were made without a template, except for the script, of course. I had an idea, ran with it, and it worked out just fine. I couldn't use real lanterns because they set off the security system at night - I think these are a nice substitute.

The scroll was built using parts from an old Chinese New Year decoration that I butchered for the purpose. It took more trial and error than the other parts, if not as much time.

The display will be completed shortly with the addition of some work from kids' club - hence the empty spaces. If need be the scroll will be relocated.